Liberal Marie-France Lalonde is on her way to a surprisingly easy victory in Ottawa-Orleans, where at press time she held more than half of the vote with nearly 90 per cent of polls reporting.

“I’m here to serve, to listen, to lead and to act in the best interests of the people of Ottawa-Orléans,” Lalonde said from her event after Thursday night’s win. She took to the stage to shouts of “Marie-France” from the more than 70 people that packed the room.

“Our first priority is to pass our budget; we need this moving forward to work on everything else,” she said. “The reliable health care, investment in education and getting some great jobs here in Ottawa-Orléans.”

Tory Andrew Lister, who finished a strong second in 2011 to Liberal Phil McNeely, was unable to match his previous vote totals.

With 216 out of 244 polls reporting, Lalonde had 25,376 votes compared to 15,376 for Conservative candidate Andrew Lister and 4,179 for NDP challenger Prosper M’Bemba-Meka.

Heading into the election, both the Liberal and Conservative candidates had reasons to believe they could win this riding for their respective parties.

Liberal Lalonde was building on the electoral legacy of retiring incumbent Liberal MPP Phil McNeely, who held the riding for more than a decade.

Conservative Lister had been hoping to recapture Ottawa-Orléans for the first time in more than a decade, but he was among the Tories swept aside by the surprising strength of the Liberal tide.

In #ottorleans, Tory Andrew Lister is not expected to appear until 10 p.m. when voters' choice is clear. Meanwhile, the Jays are losing 3-0.

Running for the NDP was Prosper M’Bemba-Meka, a cancer researcher and toxicologist. The Green Party candidate is PR professional Bob Bell.

The campaign was marked by some sharp exchanges between the two frontrunners, including an open letter from Lister to Lalonde in which he denounced one of her election pamphlets both for its “blatant misrepresentation” of the Tory platform and its spelling.

In the French-language pamphlet, referring to students, Lalonde wrote “les etudients” instead of “les étudiants.”

“As a francophone candidate in a heavily francophone community, such an obvious spelling error in your flyer is most disappointing,” Lister wrote, adding: “I hope that you will apologize to all francophones for this serious error, especially les “edutients.”

Lister, however, suffered collateral damage during the campaign when party leader Tim Hudak announced that a Tory government would not contribute to the next phase of Ottawa’s mass transit plan, which would extend the LRT east to weary commuters in Orléans.

Late in the campaign, Hudak appeared at Lister’s campaign headquarters to backtrack and reassure voters that Ottawa will get its “fair share” of transit funding after the provincial deficit is eliminated.

Lister, a fluently bilingual lawyer and founder of the Lister-Beaupré law firm, had expected to win his contest with Liberal Marie-France Lalonde. But, like many Tories, it was not his night.

Tory Andrew Lister said he has no regrets about his campaign. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming,” he said in an interview. “I wish I knew the answer.”

He said people at the door appreciated the party’s honesty. “But I think people were afraid,” he said. “The message of fear that the Liberals put out was successful in scaring enough people. Unfortunately, I think they’re going to find out that they may have backed the wrong horse and that everything we said would happen will happen.

“I’m concerned about the future of Ontario to be perfectly blunt.”

Lister watched Tory leader Tim Hudak give his concession speech before delivering his own late Thursday.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Lister is a father of two who has also volunteered his time to work for a number of local charities, including the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club, the Ottawa Chamber Music Society and the Great Canadian Theatre Company. He wanted to enter politics, Lister said, because he was concerned by the sorry state of public finances in Ontario and the province’s persistently high levels of unemployment.

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